10 Signs It’s Time To Consider Outsourcing Recruitment

Great news – your business is growing. However, as you’d expect, there have been growth pains! One being recruiting the talent you need to support and continue this growth.

You’ve kept your head above water so far. When you started, the agency approach worked fine – you hired new employees, some stayed, and you ploughed on making the best of what you had. But now you’re more aware of the skills, talents, characteristics, and personalities your business needs, is it time to focus on getting more of ‘that’ in? Plus wouldn’t it be lovely if it could all cost a bit less too?

If any the above rings true, it’s worth taking a moment to spot if there are other signs that you’re ready to move up a gear re recruitment. Below we’ve listed the ten key indicators we see time and time again that signal a business would benefit from outsourcing recruitment…

1. Time And Money Spent On Multiple Agencies Is Getting Out Of Hand

If you are spending loads of time coordinating recruitment via multiple agencies, and paying steeply for the privilege, your business would benefit from outsourcing recruitment. As well as delivering direct hires, they will also manage and negotiate existing agency relationships on your behalf, recognising sometimes that they are the key to finding those niche skillsets your business can’t live without.

2. You Are Hiring Reactively And Not Strategically

Expansion has probably forced you to recruit reactively, rather than strategically, and chances are money and time have been wasted this way – both due to not hiring the right people with staying power, but also due to lost opportunity costs as you didn’t have the right skills in the business at the right time. Reactive hiring isn’t sustainable for a growing business. A strategic approach to planning current and future skill requirements will enable you to really plan the shape of your workforce and ensure hiring plans are fully aligned with the wider business goals and an outsourced recruitment partner will support you to adopt this approach.

3. HR Staff Are Struggling To Spend Time On Strategic HR Activities

In growing businesses, it’s normal for employees to juggle both ‘business as usual’ work alongside strategic projects. As we all know – it’s painfully easy to keep getting pulled away from the strategic stuff by daily tasks and responsibilities. Whilst planning future recruitment needs is a strategic activity, carrying out the recruitment isn’t. So if your HR manager is trying to do both, something has to give. Partnering with an outsource partner that has best practice running through their veins and scalable resource ready to fully manage and execute your ongoing recruitment pipeline is the answer.

4. Your Recruitment Process Is Inconsistent And Ill-Defined

An effective recruitment process built on best practice is your best chance of finding the best talent… and keeping them. Without one, there is no consistency to recruiting across the business and recruitment becomes very hit and miss. A sense of disorganisation can seep in that appears unprofessional, gives a poor first impression and can have a damaging impact on your external employer brand. Outsourcing your recruitment will ensure robust, consistent recruitment processes are followed and that candidates and Hiring Managers receive the very best experience as a result.

5. Your Have A Backlog of Unfilled Vacancies

Having a backlog isn’t just frustrating, it’s damaging to the growth of your business. Whether you’re struggling to find the right candidates, or to receive enough applications in the first place, you’re probably missing opportunities and feeling the pressure to make decisions too quickly; and both will have you hemorrhaging money. Partnering with a recruitment outsource partner will mean your business will benefit from proven sourcing strategies, with efficient and lean processes so that backlog will soon become a thing of the past. Read more about the benefits of outsourcing recruitment in our blog here.

6. Your Workforce Lacks Diversity And Inclusion

Without a recruitment process that ensures a diverse workforce, your business will suffer from a blinkered culture. You’re going to be missing out on fresh perspectives and ideas. You’ll struggle to build trust in your employer brand and you’ll be shutting out a large segment of talent that could really enrich your business. A recruitment outsource provider will embed best practice processes which will enable your business to reach a wider talent pool and benefit from a much broader range of skills, ideas and innovation.

7. You Don’t Have A Talent Pipeline

Having a little black book of talent you can turn to when a vacancy arises doesn’t just make life easier, it speeds the whole recruitment process up considerably. It gives you access to pre-approved candidates, significantly improves the candidate experience, and boosts your employer brand. What’s not to like? As well as taking care of your day-to-day recruitment, an experienced recruitment outsource partner will also build and nurture future talent pipelines on your behalf – a service that will prove invaluable when you’ve already maxed out your own networks.

8. You’re Constantly Recruiting Because Employees Keep Leaving

If your HR staff are running around like headless chickens trying to fill vacancies because new recruits keep leaving… you have a problem with your recruitment process. It’s painful to have to acknowledge there’s a problem, but the significant cost of dealing with a high attrition rate hurts more. An experienced outsourced recruitment partner will work with you to address and resolve any issues that may be causing a high attrition rate. They’ll also help you to implement the changes needed to turn things around so your hiring is ‘right first time’. Read our blog ‘Is Your Business Haemorrhaging Money Because of Your Recruitment Process’ to find out more. 

9. You Have BIG Plans And Need Cohorts Of New Talent

Big plans for growth are often accompanied by a commensurate need for new staff. However, this often occurs in bursts rather than as a constant. Taking on batches of talent requires careful planning and attention. It’s definitely a full-time task in the short-term, but doesn’t necessarily warrant a full-time role ongoing. So how do you scale up temporarily? Choosing to outsource your recruitment at this point can save you a tremendous amount of hassle, as well as a significant amount of money; especially if you’ve been using multiple agencies to find staff up until now.

10. You Simply Don’t Have The Expertise In-House To Deliver Your Recruitment Needs

Many successful fast-growing businesses understand the value of focusing on what they’re good at… and bringing in experts to do what they’re not. If you’re a hi-tech company going places, for example, there is no need for you to become specialists in recruitment too. It makes sense to focus on your business and let others support you by utilising their specialist skills. Don’t tie your HR staff or Hiring Managers up with the grind of recruitment, they already have important work to do. Instead, turn to recruitment outsourcing to manage your hiring requirements. See it as an expert tap you can turn on and off. Find out more about how outsourcing recruitment could transform your business here.

Are You Seeing Any Signals?

If you’ve spotted signs that it’s time to consider outsourcing your recruitment, click here to download our free guide on what recruitment outsourcing is and how it works, and discover the significant benefits it could bring to your business too.

The Curve Group’s Recruitment Outsource service is ideal for businesses who need to recruit at least 20 hires a year and want to engage a professional partner to deliver the end-to-end recruitment process for them. Through our high touch, high quality, consistent and efficient service we find you the best talent quickly, leaving you to focus on your core business, freeing up time, people and money you can re-invest in your future.